A Drop in the Bucket

Five years ago I attended my first Cake Decorating class at Michael's. It was always something I was interested in but never really knew how to get into.  With much encouragement from my boyfriend (now husband), Ryan, I signed up for their intro course. I quickly became consumed with all things cake decorating and took all of their classes. I loved every minute of it. I built up my cake decorating tool and gadget collection and spent the better part of a year baking and decorating in my free time. I even had a couple of cake orders! I started researching pastry schools at this time, but my passion dwindled a bit when I realized that a lot of people expected custom cakes at grocery store prices. You mean that cake I spent 30 (!!) hours baking and decorating? I don't think so...

I also went through a bit of a transition period in my life in mid-late 2010 where I left my job and travelled a bit. I affectionately refer to this time in my life as my early mid-life crisis. When I returned to the real world I dove right into a new job and the cakes were put on the back burner (aside from the birthday cake I bake for Ryan every year).

You know how you get that nagging feeling sometimes? Like you need to shake things up a bit? A few months ago I started looking into pastry schools again. It was not an easy decision... The thought of quitting my job, spending thousands on tuition, making no money for 4+ months, and not knowing what/if I'll do anything with it afterwards still gives me anxiety when I think about it. I was stressing about this very thing tonight when Ryan said to me, "What's 4 months? It's a tiny drop in the bucket of life."

He's right and I'm committed now. Tuition has been paid, uniforms ordered and I'm heading to Pastry School in the fall at the Northwest Culinary Academy!

As such I've decided to revitalize my cake blog and document my progress. Stay tuned for weekly updates of my time there as well as some baking blog posts thrown into the mix. If nothing else, I'm sure it will be a delicious adventure!